[Turkey]. - Lot 48

[Turkey]. [Engraving]. BRAUN & HOGENBERG. Byzantium Nunc Constantinopolis. Venice or Cologne G. von Kempen, (ca 1574-1575). Sheet (40.6 x 53.5 cm). Large, finely engraved copperplate view in black (32.9 x 48.5 cm at the bowl), hand-colored (very slight loss of color towards the lower edge of the engraving). Beautiful bird's-eye view of the city of Constantinople published in Civitates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun (1541-1622) and Franz Hogenberg (1539-1590). Decorated with 12 medallions of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Second state of this view, as described by Van der Krogt. The first state, published between 1572 and 1574, included eleven portraits, with one of the medallions left empty. A fine color copy of one of the most beautiful and sought-after early views of Istanbul. Said to have been taken from the village of Scutari; the city is shown with its fortifications, the Genouse district of Galata on the opposite bank of the Golden Horn to the right. European ships and Turkish galleys appear on the seas of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. The great buildings of 16th-century Istanbul under Suleyman can be identified, such as the Süleymaniye Mosque and Topkapi Palace. Made unique by the portrait of the horseman on horseback in the foreground with his janissaries, identified as the Ottoman ruler Suleyman the Magnificent. Van der Krogt, IV-21, 1912 [Istanbul :41-2-3].